


Distraction Mini-Series

by irena_adler



Series: Watson [105]
Category: Numb3rs (TV)
Genre: Drabble Sequence, M/M, Slow Romance, Snipers, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2020-12-28 22:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21144416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irena_adler/pseuds/irena_adler
Summary: Snipers can't afford distractions.





	1. Distraction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian Edgerton can't afford distraction.

**Distraction –**

Ian was getting distracted by thoughts of Jason at the most inopportune times.

Driving past a sushi bar, he got so diverted by remembering Jason’s first taste of sushi that Ian almost rear-ended the car he was tailing.

Tracking a fugitive in southern Arizona, Ian found jaguar scat. He was thinking about how well Jason fit the characteristics of a jaguar when he realized he’d lost the trail and had to backtrack several hours.

Then, one day, he actually missed a shot in the sniper training session he was teaching. He lined up his shot, a shot he could do a hundred times out of a hundred, and then he heard Jason breathing next to him. He didn’t allow himself to check on what was an impossibility. But that flinch of almost-turning jerked his arm and he shot wide.

He managed to salvage the situation by pretending that he’d missed deliberately so he could discuss how to deal with a missed shot. He talked about frustration and self-doubt, as well as managing a target who was now aware of the sniper’s location and intention. He’d find out later that the class was one of the most useful and memorable classes for many of his students.

However, the moment his shot went wide, the moment Ian couldn’t do his job anymore, he knew that there was only one thing he could do.

When the class was over, Ian found a quiet corner and dialed a number that he knew by heart but had only used a few times.

Ian’s cell phone connected with a satellite phone, the line scratchy and weak, and then a voice snapped out, “Hill here.”

Ian had to swallow first before his voice was steady enough to say, “Hey, Jase, you on my side of the planet?”


	2. Redirection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian isn't the only one distracted.

**Redirection—**

“Ian …” It was more of an exhale from Jason than a word.

“Hey,” Ian said again.

“Ian …” Jason repeated, then his voice strengthened. “Hang on.”

Ian heard Jason’s hand cover the phone and Jason’s muffled voice snap out commands to someone nearby. Ian took advantage of the pause to settle himself.

One of many reasons why Ian so rarely called this number was that he feared that someone other than Jason would answer. Someone who would give Ian the official line about a fatal ‘training accident’ and ‘sincerest condolences’. Or worse, someone who said they’d never heard of any ‘Jason Hill’, that no such person had ever been the Army’s best sniper, or even existed at all. Ian would be left with no answers, no resolution, and no Jason.

Jason unmuffled the phone and asked, “Everything right with you?”

“Sure, just a little distracted lately.”

“I might be myself, too. Depends. Did you happen to, about an hour ago, come up behind me and touch my neck?”

“Uh, no,” Ian smiled.

“Didn’t think so,” Jason said wryly. “Would have been quite a climb, anyway.”

Ian felt an irrational warmth. Distraction could be fatal in their line of work, but he was stupidly pleased that Jason had been distracted, too.

Ian repeated, “So, I’m at Quantico, you on my half of the planet?”

“Depends on how you cut it,” Jason said. “But I should be, well, done here soon.”

“Then?”

“I was headed to D.C. but I can probably manage to swing through Quantico on the way. That’s if you’ll still be there.”

“I’ll make a point of it.”

“Good,” Jason said warmly. “I’ll call you when I get into town.”

“Good.”

Ian hung up and stood smiling at his phone until one of his students tracked him down.


	3. Self-Examination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian has mixed feelings about his conversation with Jason.

**Self-Examination--**

Ian’s euphoria from talking with Jason lasted for a while. He lingered over each pleasant fact, like a hunter with his prized pelts.

_Jason is alive and well._  
Still one of the Army’s top snipers.  
  
_Jason’s been thinking of me._  
He’d imagined Ian had been with him.  
  
_Jason wants to see me._  
He continued to want Ian more than he felt guilty for ‘sinning’.  
  
_Jason is going to come see me soon._  
He’d soon be there, with his strong, sleek body, his old-young blue eyes, his silence and understanding.

However, after an hour of pleasant anticipation, Ian began to be angry at himself. _I should have waited longer, held out more. What’s another month?_

Jason had told Ian that he didn’t know how many more times he could see him. Jason loathed himself every time he ‘gave in’ to this ‘horrible sin’ and someday it’d be just too hard. That would be the day he disappeared. Ian was a superb tracker, master of both modern and ancient methods of man-hunting, but he would not search for him. He didn’t want to find a Jason that no longer wanted him.

Even if Jason was willing, every meeting increased the danger that the Army would discover Jason’s guilty secret. The barest whisper of homosexuality would ruin Jason’s career. And Ian knew that, like him, Jason’s job _was_ his life and there was nothing beyond it.

Ian should have – _No, screw that. I might die next week and so might Jason, and all that I’d have gotten by waiting was seeing Jason one less time._

Lives – especially their lives – were too uncertain for second guessing. He was going to see Jason soon, and what happened afterwards would happen.

Now if the poor bastard that Jason was hunting would just hurry up and die.


End file.
